Call For Papers

Call for Papers for the 2019 Santa Fe Symposium®

When you present a paper at the Santa Fe Symposium®, you join a special community of industry experts. You are invited to a three-day speakers’ trip before the Symposium starts, where you have plenty of time to really get to know the other speakers. You travel to great destinations with a very friendly group that aims to make new speakers feel like peers right away. Many fine friendships got their start on the speakers’ trip. You eat well, have fun, and the discussions are priceless.

Becoming a speaker means that your paper is included in the Santa Fe Symposium® book, a tribute to you and your company and a legacy you can be proud of.

Topics for papers

The scope for topics of interest to the Santa Fe Symposium® is very broad. Any topic related to the production or business of jewelry is being sought as long as the content and purpose of the paper is educational and it does not introduce or promote goods or services for commercial gain. If you have any questions concerning a topic you would like to submit, please address them to Janet Haldeman (jhaldeman@riogrande.com) or Eddie Bell (ebell@neutec.com).

What is and is not accepted?

The Santa Fe Symposium® is an educational forum where the participants, whether speaker or attendee, go to learn something of interest related to our chosen industry. Educational papers that are non-commercial are accepted. Commercial papers are not allowed. A published paper cannot directly promote goods or services for commercial gain.

Speakers from universities and research institutes have more latitude than those from commercial companies in what they present because they rarely have any commercial interest. Therefore, they can mention products and companies by name, provided the information benefits the reader and the speaker has nothing to gain from doing so. Any speaker can mention specific products and/or companies as long as all known competing products or suppliers are given equal and objective treatment, and the purpose is not to commercially benefit the writer/speaker. It is not the purpose of the Santa Fe Symposium® to disadvantage or disparage anyone or any enterprise. Many papers have been presented that describe activity going on within a company, but they are written in such a way that they are educational in content. The speaker may be from a commercial enterprise and the subject of the paper may be related to a product that focus of the paper is educational and not promotional.

The author’s name and the company or institute name are printed in the published paper as well as on our website and advertising material. The speaker is invited to place a small company logo in one corner of the presentation slides. Acknowledgements are allowed and encouraged at the end of the published paper and the presentation.

The attendees appreciate the non-commercial format of the Santa Fe Symposium®. Our purpose has always been, and continues to be, to provide a purely educational venue. We’ve found that the non-commercial format is actually good for business. Truly educational papers build trust because people feel they get straight and honest answers from a speaker who teaches, and will then take their business to that speaker.

Editing

Our purpose in editing is to make you, the author, look good in print. We edit for clarity, accuracy, spelling, grammar and to conform to our style guide. In order to give readers a uniform, consistent and easy-to-read format, we follow American English rules.

Why do we need so much time to edit your paper?

A typical SFS book is more than 500 pages, so your paper, along with the others, makes it a big job. Everyone who works on editing has a full-time job in addition to editing the SFS book, so we cannot devote all our time to it. There are a lot of steps involved to get your paper published. One very time-consuming part is converting it to a direct-to-press format. Unfortunately, Microsoft Word® formatting does not translate perfectly and requires careful checking on our part to make sure we find and correct these changes. All the tables must be rebuilt and checked because they do not translate and need to conform to our style guide. As you might know from your own experience, after we’ve read your paper several times, we can no longer see mistakes. We have to put it down for a few days and then take it up again to find the mistakes we missed. Then if we have questions, there is the time required to go back and forth with you until we get it right and you are satisfied. We invest many hours in each paper and greatly appreciate you sending us your paper on time.

What are the benefits of being a Santa Fe Symposium® speaker?

The Santa Fe Symposium® has evolved into a community of caring and friendly people who have a common interest in jewelry and precious metals. Nowhere is this community stronger than among the speakers. Many fine friendships started on a SFS Speakers’ Trip, and I can speak for the group to say we are keen to welcome you as a new member of our group.

Is there a deadline for submitting a proposal?

Paper acceptance is based on first-come, first-serve. The reason we accept or reject papers as we get them is to give the presenter a firm commitment and maximum time for research work and writing. We usually have committed to some papers more than a year before the due date for the written paper. When the agenda is full, we are grateful to have backup papers. Most of the time, proposals submitted after the next symposium schedule is full must be pushed to the following year. So hurry and submit your proposal early or you might be disappointed.

What is the deadline for submitting the written paper?

The written paper is due the first week of January.

Thanks for your interest!

Eddie Bell

Rio Grande Executive Vice President Emeritus and co-founder of the Santa Fe Symposium®